The most recent Young Garden Club meeting was held on Wednesday, March 3.
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The guest speaker was rose grower Ken Langton.
As well as speaking about growing and maintaining healthy roses, Ken showed all how successful his method is by bringing a variety of beautiful healthy potted rose plants.
Here are some of the useful hints mentioned and discussed.
- 1 Planting. When planting bare rooted roses it is advisable to put them in a tub of water first. Make the hole large, deep and square, back fill with soil, put the rose in and water it.
- 2 Pruning. For this area July/August is a good time to do the winter hard pruning ready for for the Spring flush. Spray after pruning with " Lim Sulphate". February is the time for light pruning and tidying up ready for the Autumn flowering. Of course there are some beautiful old varieties that only bloom once.
- 3 Feeding. Feed after pruning. Rose food contains Oxygen and "Potash". The higher the ratio of potash to oxygen the better. Feed the mulch not the rose. "Organic Life" is recommended and is available in Young at rural supplies stores.
- 4 Spraying for pests. Use Eco oil ( Eco Neen or Eco Carb ) to kill bugs and use Eco fungicide for black spot.
Ken suggested using the herbicide "Fusilade Forte" (128 EC) for "couch" and "summer grass" because it does not harm roses.
It is worth mentioning that the beautiful rambling pink or white multiflora rose does not like the extreme heat. It prefers the cool climate.
Roses are grafted on what is called an "under stock" or "root stock". It is vital to remove any growth or "shoots" that emanate from bellow the graft.
These must be hammered off, "not cut", to prevent them growing again. If these shoots are left to grow the blooms will change completely reverting to the "under stock" and the plant will produce very ordinary red flowers instead of the original colour.
At first you will notice a few red roses on those shoots and eventually the whole bush will be red.
There are a relatively few roses that are grafted with a root stock that will produce small pink roses if the below the graft shoots are not removed. These small pink blooms will not be the same as the plant had when purchased.
The Next Young Garden Club meeting will be held Wednesday, May 1 at the Catherine McCauley Centre commencing at 7pm. Our guest speaker will be Martin Sullivan from Golden Glance Nursery.
Martin will speak on a variety of gardening topics including soils, pot gardening as well as answering any questions about any garden topic.
For information contact Helenie on 0427 710 777 or Moya on 0413 953 642.
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